The cut scenes can get repetitive: If you mess up you have to keep replaying them over and over. Not for those looking for challenging strategy or puzzle-solving game play.

Bottom Line

If you buy only one Ninja-centric, zombie/parasite action slasher this year, it had better be Ninja Blade.

Romantic comedies, buddy cop duos, and "one honest maverick out for justice" are all tried-and-true templates designed to put butts into movie-theater seats. Video games have tried-and-true formulas, too. One of the most time-honored video game genres is the ninja game, and another is the zombie slaughter-fest. Microsoft's Xbox 360only Ninja Blade ($59.99 list) takes on both traditions, melding classics like ShinobiandResident Evil. If you're looking for a sophisticated puzzle adventure, try another game. But if you want to whip out your ninja sword and slice your way through a zombie-infested future Tokyo, this is the game for you.

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Ninja Blade is set in Tokyo of 2014 after a horrible parasite attack has turned citizens and local wildlife into blood-thirsty monsters. Whom does the government turn to? The armed forces? The World Health Organization? Godzilla? Guess again. The Japanese make the only logical choice: They call upon a team of highly trained supernatural ninjas. You play Ken, a member of the ninja team who starts the game, literally diving right into the action. Out of a helicopter. 2,000 feet above Tokyo. Without a parachute. You battle your first set of monsters mid-flight, and the action, in the form of crazed button-mashing and even crazier cinematic cut scenes, never lets up.

It is fun, though. When you encounter carriers of the deadly zombie parasite, it's your duty to dice them into bloody chunks loving rendered in up to 1080p-resolution video, using one of your four bladed weapons. You can choose from the oni-slayer blade, the twin falcon knives, and the stonerender sword, which are good for killing everyday monsters, quicker, smaller enemies, and big slow foes, respectively. As you cut them open, they spew blood and, oddly, crystals, which you can use to upgrade your weapons and appearance later in the game. You've got the usual running and jumping abilities, and your special ninja powers let you run up and down walls, spot vulnerabilities in enemies and walls with special ninja-vision, and hurl a few special throwing stars that cut down enemies from a distance or even put out fires. Yes, that's right, your throwing stars can put out fires.

After you kill all the little parasites in a given area, the next step is, of course, giant cinematic boss battles. And I do mean giant. When you battle a larger foesay a 14-story-tall zombified arachnid, or an equally gargantuan and bulbous pox monsterthe game slips into a more cinematic mode. These key scenes play out on the screen in front of you, with Ken automatically doing all his crazy ninja tricks; you're called upon only to hit the correct attack or dodge button when prompted by the game.

This can be a bit tricky when you start, and you're sure to get stomped a few times the first time out. But don't worry: If you miss the required combo, the game rewinds about 20 seconds and lets you try again. This can be a bit tiresome at first, but you quickly get the hang of it. The graphics in the scenes are beautifully rendered (well, as beautiful as monster-based carnage ravaging the Japanese capital can be), and the combinations are different for each, so you don't feel like you're trapped on rails, Dragon's Lair style. The cut-scene play is more fun than it sounds, though this approach does limit replayability.

If you're looking for clever strategy or a great story, this isn't the game for you. It lacks the extra something that would make it a true standout in a world already inundated with hack-and-slash games. That said, it is fun. The Ninja Blade game is a great-looking symphony of button-mashing, sword-slashing, gore-spattered cross-genre funthink Jackie Chan in a George Romero film. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to fight what looks like several hundred zombie pig-man creatures on the wing of an in-flight 747.

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About the Author

Dan Evans is the DIY Analyst for PCMag.com. He has been at the magazine/website for over 10 years and during that tenure has worked on every product team here. When he is not building a PC from scratch he is reviewing laptops, desktops, and videogames. Before coming to PCMag.com he earned a BA in US History at Columbia University and was a membe... See Full Bio

Ninja Blade

Ninja Blade

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